Editorial: Another bad move for Illinois

Monday

As expected, feared and roundly criticized as a bad idea, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Friday that 150 Illinois Department of Transportation jobs will be moved from Springfield to Harrisburg.

As expected, feared and roundly criticized as a bad idea, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Friday that 150 Illinois Department of Transportation jobs will be moved from Springfield to Harrisburg.

Harrisburg is a city with a population of about 10,000 in Saline County in southern Illinois. That’s about 211 miles from Springfield, a little more than a 3½-hour drive.

At a news conference the governor said the move is being proposed – it must be reviewed by the state Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability — to fairly distribute state jobs throughout Illinois.

That would be reasonable if it weren’t for the fact that most of IDOT’s work is in the northern part of the state. When you consider the high price of gasoline, it makes no sense to move an agency further from its clients, especially when the governor has threatened to make $1.5 billion in cuts to the budget.

About 40 of the IDOT workers have told state officials they won’t relocate. The governor said employees who do not move to Harrisburg will be offered jobs at the same levels and pay grades elsewhere in IDOT or in state government. That sounds like he’s adding positions and payroll to a budget that is already out of whack.

As we’ve said before, this reeks of political payback. State Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, has been quoted as calling the governor a jerk.

We expect the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield will continue to be empty. We can’t imagine Blagojevich would want to show himself in that city too often.

Rockford Register Star

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